Mayor Brian Bowman's fare increase for transit riders is the worst possible option for the city.

Not only does the fare increase hit many people who can afford it the least, it could result in further declines in ridership.

Transit riders who buy monthly bus passes will pay an extra $115 a year to help Mayor Brian Bowman balance his budget in 2018. But the average homeowner will pay only a third of that in extra property taxes at $39 a year.

There’s something definitely wrong with this picture.

The city is planning to jack up the price of a monthly full-fare bus pass to $100.10 from $90.50 on Jan. 1 under Bowman’s budget. That’s an added annual cost of $115.20 for a regular bus rider. Monthly passes for children and high school students are going up $83.40 a year and seniors will pay an additonal $63 a year for their monthly passes.

Cash fare for a full-fare rider is going up 25 cents a ride to $2.95. Which means an occasional rider who takes, for example, three return trips a week will pay an extra $78 a year.

It’s by far the largest fare increase in Winnipeg anyone can remember. The closest we’ve seen to it in recent years was in 2006 when cash fares went up 15 cents from $1.85 to $2. Other than that, cash fares have increased a nickel a year since at least 1999.

By contrast, the average homeowner, who’s seeing a 2.33% increase in property taxes, will pay an additional $39 in 2018 under Bowman’s budget. In other words, Bowman and city council are planning to shift more of the city’s financial burden away from property taxpayers and onto transit riders. It’s not exactly a pro-transit policy.

Not only does the fare increase hit many people who can afford it the least, it could result in further declines in ridership. There are a lot of unhappy riders out there already unsatisfied with the service they receive, in large part because of unreliable scheduling, congested buses passing them by or buses not showing up at all. If you tell them they now have to pay 10% more for a substandard service, some will find alternative modes of transportation.

As we now know, the single biggest reason for the fare hike is not because of provincial funding, it’s due to declining ridership. The city is projecting to lose $6.4 million from lost ridership in 2018. By contrast, the province’s funding of Transit has remained steady at $40.1 million.

The fare increase is expected to generate an additional $5.7 million in revenue, offsetting most of the revenue declines from falling ridership. And while subsidies from property taxpayers are up $10 million for Transit in 2018, they’re actually lower than they were in 2016.

The city is expected to contribute $65 million to Transit, called “mill rate support,” in 2018, up from $55 million in 2017. But that’s down from the $69.9 million in mill rate support in 2016.

Meanwhile, Transit still hasn’t explained why its costs have increased as much as they have. Over the past two years, the utility’s operating costs have skyrocketed 8%. Salaries and benefits are up 11% from 2016 to 2018. The number of full-time equivalent staff at Transit grew by 100 from 1,473 in 2013 to a projected 1,573 in 2018. Despite that, ridership is way down and there’s been virtually no expansion of services. That needs to be scrutinized. Because those costs, and the lost revenues from declining ridership, are being offloaded disproportionately onto transit riders.

That’s not a “balanced approach,” as Bowman claims he’s taking. Instead of taking responsibility for Transit’s budget challenges, he’s gouging Transit riders and trying to blame the province for making him do it.

There are alternatives to increasing fares by up to 10%, including controlling costs within Transit and redirecting existing city spending to the utility.

Jacking up fares as much as Bowman is proposing is the worst possible option.

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